The Indictment

In his thoughtful and atmospheric first novel, Canter creates a film noir-like world in which practically every character--who of course knows every other character--harbors a guilty secret. It's set in 1989 in an unnamed Southern state, attorney Kendall Wilkinson hears about the murder of his friend Roger Dufault from his current inamorata, Dufault's wife Peyton. As executor of Dufault's estate, Wilkinson uncovers shady secrets in his pal's past involving drug dealings and possible political machinations. What follows is not so much a mystery as a gradual disclosure of the ties that bind Wilkinson to most of the other characters, all of whom are in some way implicated in Dufault's death. Canter's spare, straightforward prose leads readers through a labyrinthine plot, which, while it may lack the drive of a conventional whodunit, provides all the danger and deception of the best noirs. As with many examples of the genre, the narrator ends up being both hero and patsy--Canter in fact saves his biggest coup in this regard for the book's very last page. (June)